Have you ever cooked eggs in coffee?
Posted on 05-02-10 · Daddy cooks!, I love eggs! Tags: Kitchen experiments
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I have a daughter, Sam, who, except during summer and Christmas breaks, is home only on weekends. She’s in college and stays in a rented condo near the university. Her father, Speedy, picks her up every Friday night and drives her back on Sunday evening. One Friday, Speedy went to see a client before picking up Sam. The meeting ended very early and he had a couple of hours to kill before Sam’s last class ended. Speedy went to a bookstore and passed the time browsing through cookbooks. One recipe in a Lebanese cookbook caught his attention. Eggs boiled in coffee and served with a mixture of ground cumin and salt. Two days later, he cooked the egg dish.
The eggs were boiled in a strong coffee solution for 30 minutes, if I remember correctly.
As you can see in the photo above, the egg shell has acquired the color of coffee. The egg itself also tastes very subtly of coffee.
But it isn’t really the subtle coffee taste that gives life to this dish. The hard-boiled eggs are dipped in salt and cumin then eaten. Not equal amounts of salt and cumin. It’s more salt than cumin, actually. The result is something interesting. It’s boiled eggs like I’ve never eaten before as the cumin imparted a warmth and depth that’s kinda hard to describe. The taste is in the tongue, the sensation is inside the mouth, there’s a slight jolt as you take your first bite, and both the taste and the sensation linger.
If you find boiled eggs with salt too plain and egg salad too fatty, you might want to enjoy your boiled eggs differently. I’ve never cooked with cumin very much before and the times that I have have, I’ve always used it sparingly. But after experiencing these coffee eggs with cumin and salt, I must say that I now see cumin from a very different perspective.
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Wow! I love coffee, eggs and cumin. I have got try it! Thank you, Connie.
You must have known that the title of this recipe would catch everyone’s attention. I’m one to always order the weirdest thing on the menu. It’s 12:32 AM and it’s too late to try cook right now. But tomorrow I will satisfy my curiosity, very intrigued by these eggs.
Hi Connie, this would be similar to the Chinese way of hard-boiling eggs in a strong tea (with some herbs, I think) solution. You can see these simmering away or being kept warm in pots. When I tried one, they gave me only the egg without any salt or dipping spice. Cumin/salt combination sounds intriguing. I love cooking with cumin, as it imparts a very Middle Eastern flavor. Have you tried cooking monggo with some cumin and chili sauce? Yum!!!
The process is different, actually. Making tea eggs is a two-step process as the eggs needs to be partially cooked first before the shells are cracked then placed in the tea solution.
Very curious… After reading this, I actually went home for lunch to make this
I did two versions: one with the shell intact and the other, cracked like tea eggs to get the marbled effect and stronger flavor. Hopefully at least one turns out well!
To get the tea eggs effect, you have to half cook the eggs first before tapping the shells to create the patterns. Otherwise, the raw eggs will come out through the cracks. Example, click here.
verdict: The two process tea egg technique turned out nicely. Stronger flavor and prettier… But still prefer regular tea eggs.
Connie, Thank you for sharing! I will try it soon.
Hi:) I’ve never cooked eggs in coffee but I like eating scrambled egg, rice and coffee (as sabaw..hehehe..i spoon it on the rice and eggs as I eat along xD ) btw, I’m a fan
Cumin reminds me of ‘arabo’ lolz
I can’t wait to try this recipe. Just a quick question. Isn’t cooking hard boiled eggs overkill for 30 minutes? I don’t know if the texture is different when cooked for 30 mins. vs. 10 for a regular hard boiled.
Thanks.
Yes, the texture is different. The egg white becomes more chewy with prolonged cooking.
Overkill is relative. There are recipes that require frying hard boiled eggs (like son-in-law eggs).
The “cooking” is not really the point here but the time necessary to absorb flavors.